Poker News: Waiter Wins EPT, 2017 WSOP Schedule

It's the final week of the 2016 calendar and we'll soon shift our focus to the new year. Before we flip the page, though, there were some important headlines to pass along from the poker world this week.

Waiter Wins Big, But Won't Quit Day Job

Patrick Serda, who works as a waiter in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is coming off a massive win, but don't expect him to become a changed man. He claimed second place at a European Poker Tour event in Prague, taking home over $750,000, but he says he won't quit his job at a local pizza place.

Serda still doesn't consider himself to be a professional poker player, but with more wins on this level, he might have to change that line of thinking. He already has tournaments in Australia and the Bahamas on tap for January in which he'll look to add to the money that he has already won that is sitting in his online betting account. He's probably still wondering whether his run was a fluke or whether he can make a living doing it.

2017 WSOP Schedule Announced

The World Series of Poker just had their Main Event in November, but the 2017 schedule has already been released. The 48th edition of the World Series of Poker will kick off on May 30 at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas, and it will go for 49 days with all sorts of events: cash games, bracelet events, satellites, you name it. As per usual, the Main Event will be completed in November with nine players heading to the final table.

The World Series of Poker will be looking to build on another fantastic year in which a record 107,833 entries were recorded for their tournaments, 21,613 of which registered for the hugely-popular Colossus event, the second of its kind. The third edition of the Colossus series will take place from June 2-4 with a buy-in of $565.

Will 2017 Aussie Millions Be Biggest Yet?

Lastly of note for this week we'll move to Australia where the tournament director of the Aussie Millions has his chest puffed out. Joel Williams has claimed that the 2017 edition of the tournament will be the biggest one to date, despite not having PokerStars on as a sponsor. The Aussie Millions, officially known as the Australian Poker Championship, is a series of events that is held in Melbourne at the Crown Casino, and the Main Event is the biggest tournament in the Southern Hemisphere with a prize pool of over $5 million USD.

This helps attract not only the biggest stars in Australian poker, but Hall of Famers from around the world head to Melbourne to try their hand. Williams believes that the 2017 edition will boast the highest amount of entries ever. He has suggested that poker is always going to bring in players, but the city of Melbourne itself is one that helps the scene with their restaurants, international cricket and other attractions that makes it seem like a vacation to come and play poker in Melbourne. We'll see if that proves to be the case or whether it's just some insider hype.

The event will take place in late January and you'll be able to watch online with play-by-play from Jason Somerville.